The present invention relates to an error monitoring system including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a data output terminal and, more particularly, to an error reporting system for an error monitoring system.
An error monitoring system for monitoring devices included in the system and sending error information representative of errors to the outside of the system is conventional. Today, not only a display and a printer but also a facsimile apparatus and an electronic mail using a telephone circuit are usable with the error monitoring system. However, the kinds and amounts of information which can be output are limited by the outputting capability of a display or that of a printer. Moreover, the error information include only minimum necessary information to be output to a display or a printer connected to the system. Specifically, in the event of a critical error, necessary information are too much in amount to be fully output. As a result, although the occurrence of an error may be reported, it is often impractical to remove the error only with the output information. This requires a person to obtain additional information by communicating with or traveling all the way to a station where the system is situated. In addition, because the error information are fixed, not all necessary information are output in the event of an error. This is likely to prevent all necessary information from being collected when an error occurs again.
Technologies relating to the present invention are disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2-51925, 2-283137, 3-101539, 4-109728, 5-227316, 5-244300, 7-255087, 7-297826, and 7-321913.